Western Days

This past weekend, Travis and I attended a fall festival called Western Days at Randsburg, a living ghost town near our city. This town is nestled in the hills of the Rand Mountain Range where gold and silver mines abounded way back when. For one day a year, the locals open up their quaint town to tourists who want to experience a little bit of the wild west.

The town itself has a lot of charm and a ton of mining history. Everywhere you look you can see old mining equipment and can just imagine what life was like back in the mid 1800s.

Saturday, however, the streets were lined with modern vendors selling their wares.

They had actors in period costumes putting on shows of duels and recreating the gun fight at the O.K. Corral.

I really liked his boots :)

I took a quick video of one of the gun fighting skits if you're so inclined to watch:



You could even take a hay ride down Main Street, but it was at your own risk seeing as how this poor coach was robbed by bandits at least three times while we were there!

I think the best part of my day other than spending it with my hubby was all the antique stores! I had no idea this tiny town had so many stores, but with such a rich mining history it shouldn't really surprise me.

Let's start with some gorgeous amber and clear bottles. I've started a small bottle collection myself, but I'm being very picky because I don't want to get too carried away.

Next up: purple glass. Ever hear of purple glass?

Between 1850 and 1910, Early American Pattern Glass or EAPG was made with manganese instead of lead (lead was needed for the Civil War effort). It was later discovered that long term exposure to the sun causes EAPG to turn purple due to the manganese content. Although I personally think it's gorgeous, it turns out that this type of glass is not favored as an antique and the color devalues the piece. Plus, people are actually ruining EAPG by artificially turning it purple under UV lights! GRRR! My point is to be careful when buying this type of glass and make sure it was left out in the sun by accident and not on purpose.

Moving on...check out all this glass ware! I love milk glass, and I'll definitely be coming back to this particular store.

And check out these big old wooden spools! I wanted to take one home so badly. Maybe next time.

This beautiful blue kitchen ware would look so good in my white and yellow kitchen!

Cast-iron kitchen goodies (yup, these babies are HEAVY):

I love the look of this antique stove, but I sure am glad we have modern amenities:

Pretty ceramic jars:

And last but not least, old tin cans and wooden boxes that once held explosives:

I really want one of those boxes, and I'm thinking it would make a great storage solution for my gardening tools outside. I truly enjoy taking pieces of history and turning them into fabulous re-purposed finds.

Thanks for stopping by today! See ya soon!

Summer Adventures

Seems kind of odd to do a post about summer activities when it's stinking cold outside, but what the heck?! I've been meaning to share some of our summer adventures, but I haven't had the time to do so. Turns out that I have the time now, so let's get started!

A few months back when it was toasty warm, we took a couple of day trips. The first trip we took was up to the Mt. Whitney Portal. For those of you who are not familiar with Mt. Whitney, it's the highest peak in the continental United States. How lucky am I that it's right in my backyard? Travis and I plan on climbing this peak in a few years.

Looking at the picture below, Mt. Whitney is the peak to the right of the two pointy peaks that are in the center of the picture. Mt. Whitney is approximately 14,495 feet tall, and I say approximately because no one really knows exactly how tall she really is. Ironically, Mt. Whitney is located only 85 miles from the lowest point in the contiguous Unite States, Badwater Basin in Death Valley which is 280 feet below sea level.

When you enter the park, there are signs everywhere warning visitors of bears. For some reason, Travis finds this highly amusing. We found a t-shirt a few weeks ago that says, "Bears like people...they taste just like chicken." HA! We're totally going back to get ourselves a pair (they didn't have them in our size at the time).

The portal is a gorgeous place with lots of pine trees and rocks.

There's even a waterfall that carries the winter melt down the mountain.

Coming down from the portal is just spectacular. Check out the view of the valley!

A few weeks later we decided to visit the Giant Sequoia trees at the Trail of a Hundred Giants which was only recently designated as a national monument by President Clinton back in 2000. Sequoias are one of the largest living organisms on earth, and they only occur in a narrow 60-mile band of mixed conifer trees between 5,000 and 8,000 feet in elevation. They grow from a seed less than half an inch long, and when fully grown they shoot more than 250 feet into the sky. Sequoias are also commonly more than 20 feet in diameter and at least one has grown to 35 feet across. Did you know that the word "sequoia" is the only English word to contain all five vowels? Go ahead and check...I know you want to!

Yeah, they're kind of big. Makes you realizes just how tiny we really are in the grand scheme of things.

And their root system is amazing!

One of the highlights of the trip was watching a white-headed woodpecker peck feverously at this tree. You can see him on the left side of the tree smack dab in the middle of the picture.

Aside from the Giant Sequoias, there are also beautiful meadows in the area. Just think of all the critters that live here!

That concludes our summer adventure series. I still have my craft fair to share plus the introduction of the latest member of my animal clan. Lots to share, so be on the look-out!

Thank you + Catching Up

It's been exactly one week since I had to say goodbye to Bay. Everyday gets a little easier, and I am very thankful for all the sweet comments you have left for me. They certainly touched my heart.

As is tradition when one of my little ones passes, I had him cremated. His remains were ready for me to pick up yesterday. The tiny cedar box just brought a whole flood of tears, but I was happy to bring him home.

I spent part of my weekend and most of my day yesterday finishing up Thank You cards for the staff at the vet hospital. They are always so kind to me, and they all know and love my critters. For the gals, I made these cards with bookmarks. In spite of the sad reason I was making them, I was really happy to be creative for the first time in a long time.

I wanted to make the veterinarian a more masculine card, so I used the Big Owl from Hero Arts and made a little window card with my 1 3/4" punch.

Now to catch you up on a mini trip I took last week. My friend and I wanted to drive up to the mountains and walk around in the freshly fallen snow. Our ultimate goal was to hit the scrapbooking store up there, but to our complete disappointment, they were closed. I was not at all happy especially since I had checked their website before leaving. I guess next time, I'll call.

All the shops we passed had these great big old icles hanging from their rooftops. Some of them were at least three feet long! For where I'm at, that's a huge deal!

The entire area looked like a little rustic snowy wonderland. It was beautiful.

It was a really quiet day on the main drag and most of the shops were either out of business (sad!) or closed, but we did find a lovely boutique that was open. It had the most wonderful chandelier adorned with sparkling glass beads. I was really inspired.

We also stopped off at a furniture store where I drooled over the most comfortable glide rocker. I've been eying it for years, but it has a bit of a hefty price tag. One day, maybe, it will come home with me. For the time being, I was content to bring this little guy home. Isn't he cute?

He'll go just perfect in my *new* vintage-styled craft room. Yup, I'm getting a new room, but I need to get it all done before I show it to the world (or at least to my small circle of blogging friends). I have grand ideas for my room, so bear with me as I piece it together slowly but surely.

I have another card to share with all of you tomorrow, so be sure to stop back then!